Is Smoking Weed for Non-medical Reasons Bad for Your Health?

Is smoking weed, good, bad, or indifferent for your health? Hmm, good and complex question.

One
of the problems with the U.S. position on cannabis is that research is
effectively discouraged because of its standing as a controlled
substance. The government has authorized only a few places to raise it
and experiment leaving Israel, where marijuana is illegal, to pioneer in
cannabis research.

Let’s try for some balance

Well,
you can begin by clearing the table of other issues. If you keep
cannabis under the microscope for the purposes of this review, you can
leave out the comparisons with cigarettes, alcohol, and other “vices.”
Keep your focus on the effects of cannabis on your health.

Notice
that the question seems to assume smoking weed is bad for your health;
it’s basically asking “how” bad it is. So, you should not forget that
millions of users for thousands of years have reported relief of
symptoms following their smoking. Even the Mayo Clinic reports,
“Cannabinoids are likely safe when used for specific conditions at the
recommended doses for the recommended amount of time.” Let’s try for
some balance.

Focus on smoking

The
question raised relates to smoking weed. It ignores other forms of
cannabis treatment and ingestion, so you can leave them out of the
discussion. Beyond these cautions, you can break it down to key issues:

Cannabis
does affect your mind and body, and for most users, that’s exactly why
they use it. They enjoy the positive effects enough to overlook the
negatives. They should understand that cannabis is a flowering herb that
contains many unpredictable molecular elements. They should know that
cannabinoids like THC have pharmacological effects.

It should be
no surprise that cannabis affects mind and body. Psychoactive effects
range from relaxing and happy to high energy and euphoric. Some users of
high doses have reported paranoia and hallucinations. For those seeking
medical benefits, there is great value in the pain relieving, sedating,
and amnesiac effects.

Physical effects follow from smoking.
After all, you are taking a foreign substance into your system. And,
those effects may show in eyes, nose, throat, and lungs.

Eyes: THC
dilates the blood vessels and increases blood pressure. It’s that
mechanism that relieves glaucoma’s pressure on the optic nerve. The
dilated blood vessels show as reddened eyes. Smoke in unventilated rooms
and dirty contact lenses can also irritate the eyes. The effect is
short-lived and harmless, and red eyes are successfully treated with
over-the-counter eye drops.

Nose
and Throat: Occasional use may produce allergic effects like runny nose
or watery eyes. But, users may find the allergies are specific to some
cannabis strains and not others. Even though smoking marijuana does not
expect you to inhale or exhale through the nose, the nose will be
involved in the respiration. Tiny hair-like cilia line the nose to trap
airborne irritants. And, smoking anything will interfere with the cilia
function allowing infections through to the sinuses and lungs.

So, obviously repeated use and high dose usage of any substance will aggravate the problem.

Lungs: The American Thoracic Society is firm that smoking anything puts people at risk for lung damage. The ATS,
addressing the use of marijuana, says, “Few research studies have been
done since marijuana remains illegal in most countries, and since
marijuana can be inhaled in many ways (e.g. water pipes, joints, etc.),
it is likely that in frequent users (and some less frequent users),
marijuana harms the lungs, and that there is not a safe way to smoke
marijuana.”

So,
even without research evidence, they reasonably conclude that it
presents a real risk of bronchitis and COPD. And, they seriously warn
asthma sufferers and cystic fibrosis patients to avoid smoking weed.

They
also take the positions that marijuana contains carcinogens that put
smokers at risk for lung cancer, something that is aggravated by the
fact that smoking takes in more smoke and holds it longer.

Unfortunately,
the reality complicates any study. Many marijuana smokers also smoke
tobacco, so it’s hard to differentiate the cause and effect. On, the
other hand, the occasional weed smoker probably smokes considerably less
than the regular toker.

So,
now, you must assume that bringing any foreign substance into your
lungs presents some risk aggravated by habit and other health
conditions.

Sexual Dysfunction:Dr. Christopher Asandra,
writing for askMen.com, points out a disconnect between men whose
sexual performance is improved because they are relaxed and those whose
testosterone drops leading to erectile dysfunction. It may also
contribute to premature ejaculation and the inability to achieve orgasm.

Research by Dr. Rany Shamioul at
Canada’s Queens University indicates there are cannabinoid receptors in
the smooth muscle of the penis and the clitoris and cannabis
antagonizes that receptors making it more difficult to reach orgasm.

Smoking weed
is a smoking event, and smoking even an organic substance affects the
brain and body. Because of known and certain results, it should be
strongly discouraged among children and teens while the body and brain
are developing.

Other
than that, even known risks are a function of the individual’s genetic
factors, the choice of product, and the frequency of use. The little
serious research has failed to make any conclusive connection between
marijuana use and mental or physical health problems although you can
see that ingestion presents some health problems for some users.

So, if you’re asking if smoking weed for non-medical reasons bad for your health, Dr. Francesco Filbey, principal
investigator and associate professor at the School of Behavioral and
Brain Sciences at the University of Texas at Dallas, advises, “Too much
or too little of anything isn't good. There needs to be an equal
balance."

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